Minnesota high schools may soon be affected by a proposed policy that would allow students to participate in sports based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex. On Dec. 4, the board of directors of the Minnesota State High School League will vote on the policy. According to the draft of the policy, titled “Gender Identity Participation in MSHSL Activities:”

Based on the study, the differences between men and women, and boys and girls, are biologically programmed. These are not learned differences. What difference does that make? A whole lot. Whether a boy or girl believes they are different from the opposite sex in profound ways, or not, they are different. In profound ways. A movement toward a genderless, and gender-identity-based society is gaining traction, in academia, and in law. The movement is based on the belief that Gender is performative, it is comprised of routinised bodily and speech practices, rather than the manifestation of an ‘inner essence’. This is...

The Vaticanâ€™s Congregation for Education has said that a drag show that occurred last year on the campus of the University of San Diego (USD) caused â€śscandal,â€ť according to a letter revealed by the group Alumni for a Catholic USD.Nevertheless, the student organization PRIDE at USD will again be hosting a drag show next week called â€śCelebration of Gender Expression: Supreme Drag Superstarâ€ť on the campus of the Catholic institution, according to the groupâ€™s Facebook site.â€śTransgender & Transsexual? Gender expression & gender identity? Drag queen & drag king? What do these terms mean?,â€ť the group asks. â€śAt this Changemaker event,...

Parents who dress their daughters in pink and force them to play with dolls are holding back the economy, a Government minister has said. Jenny Willott, the Consumer Affairs minister, said that women were being forced into professions that paid less well because of gender stereotyping when they were young children. Girls were often guided into low paying occupations like nursing because of the types of toys they were given to play with. This led to an over-representation of women among nurses—and of men among engineers and physicists. …

Oakland high schooler and gender-identity activist whose skirt was set ablaze on an AC Transit bus was scheduled to begin a series of surgeries Wednesday as Alameda County prosecutors weighed potential charges against a 16-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of assault.

In San Antonio, where the mayor is rising Democratic star Julian Castro, a broad new anti-discrimination ordinance under consideration may catch opponents of same-sex marriage in its net, in what opponents consider a disturbing infringement on liberty of conscience. The ordinance would prohibit bias toward people on account of sexual orientation. Opponents are concerned that opposition to same-sex marriage or other viewpoints about homosexuality would be considered bias. “If you, for instance, oppose same-sex marriage, that’s going to be interpreted as opposing someone based on sexual orientation,” explains Jeff Mateer, general counsel for the Liberty Institute, an organization that focuses...

Next week, the Swedish parliament is expected to pass a law abolishing a requirement for people changing their legal gender to be sterilized. The move follows a high level and at times bitter debate about a four-decade old law that pitted equality activists against conservative politicians. The activists argued that the 1972 law—making Sweden one of the first countries in the world to allow legal gender change—breached human rights. Opponents objected to possible situations where a person born as a woman, changes her legal identity to become a man, then gets pregnant. … For transgender people everywhere, Argentina currently sets...

“So it’s a boy, right?” a neighbour calls out as Kathy Witterick walks by, her four month old baby, Storm, strapped to her chest in a carrier. Witterick smiles,comments on the sunny spring day, and keeps walking. She’s used to it. The neighbours know Witterick and her husband, David Stocker, are raising a genderless baby. But they don’t pretend to understand it. Witterick and Stocker believe they are giving their children the freedom to choose who they want to be, unconstrained by social norms about males and females. “What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their...

“So it’s a boy, right?” a neighbour calls out as Kathy Witterick walks by, her four month old baby, Storm, strapped to her chest in a carrier. See more family photos. Each week the woman asks the same question about the baby with the squishy cheeks and feathery blond hair. Witterick smiles, opens her arms wide, comments on the sunny spring day, and keeps walking. She’s used to it. The neighbours know Witterick and her husband, David Stocker, are raising a genderless baby. But they don’t pretend to understand it.

When many couples have a baby, they send out an email to family and friends that fills them in on the key details: name, gender, birth weight, that sort of thing. (You know the drill: "Both Mom and little Ethan are doing great!") But the email sent recently by Kathy Witterick and David Stocker of Toronto, Canada to announce the birth of their baby, Storm, was missing one important piece of information. "We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now--a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in...

Children as young as 12 are to be allowed drugs to block puberty while they decide whether to have a sex change, it has been revealed. The monthly injection suspends the onset of adulthood so that young people confused about their gender can be sure of any decision before they take on too many masculine or feminine features. Supporters say that the "window" prevents a great deal of mental and physical anguish caused by the maturing of sex organs, facial hair growth and changes in the voice. But critics argue it only prolongs the agony and can prevent people "growing...

In a move blasted by opponents as an “end run” around lawmakers, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday quietly signed a controversial transgender rights executive order, called the bathroom bill by critics, making it illegal to discriminate against state workers on the basis of “gender identity.” “This is going to set off a firestorm, and it’s certainly something the governor should have given us a heads up on,” said House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones (R-North Reading). Patrick signed the changes with no announcement. The measure was a major issue during Patrick’s tough re-election battle last year. The executive order, unlike a...

SALT LAKE CITY — As predicted earlier this week, Salt Lake County followed in the footsteps of its largest city Tuesday in passing, unanimously, two new laws that create protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The pair of statutes was modeled after ordinances adopted by Salt Lake City last month that also passed their council panel without a dissenting vote. While some county GOP council members took a hard stance against a proposal that extended insurance benefits to same-sex partners earlier this year, the anti-bias measures were roundly supported. Republican Councilman Jeff Allen, who opposed extending...

The House of Representatives has approved an addition to the healthcare reform package. It calls for the creation of a “Healthy Teen Initiative”, and allocates $50 million to so-called “comprehensive” sex education. “This was a vote to bring science back into government”, said James Wagoner, president of Advocates For Youth and a leader of the coalition that promoted the amendment. The committee, he continued, “has taken an important step toward ensuring young people get the critical sexual health information they need to make responsible decisions about their lives.” Mr. Wagoner’s statement is astonishing, because Advocates for Youth’s sexual education curricula...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 1, 2009 LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride...

by Gina L. Diorio, M.A.The age-old question, â€śWhat do you want to be when you grow up?â€ť has just taken on a whole new meaning. Forget the myriad options ranging from teacher and engineer to actor or electrician. Now, the biggest decision may be down to two choices: boy or girl.Yes, seriously.This week, the near-century-old Endocrine Society recommended that children suffering from gender identity disorders be given hormones to block puberty in order to give the kids time to decide which gender they prefer. Specifically, the BBC reports that the guidelines state: â€śWe recommend that adolescents who fulfil [sic] eligibility...

What is the critical issue in our wartime debate over defense reauthorization? You might think it’s how many U.S. troops should remain in Iraq in the coming year. Or how much we spend on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or what rest, training and equipment our forces will be given. Of course, those things are important. But the critical issue? Well, anyone who’s listened to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) would know the answer: It’s whether we should include the phrase “gender identity” in the definition of protected classes under our hate-crime laws. Huh? While most senators were concentrating on...

Until recently, many children who did not conform to gender norms in their clothing or behavior and identified intensely with the opposite sex were steered to psychoanalysis or behavior modification. But as advocates gain ground for what they call gender-identity rights, evidenced most recently by New York City’s decision to let people alter the sex listed on their birth certificates, a major change is taking place among schools and families. Children as young as 5 who display predispositions to dress like the opposite sex are being supported by a growing number of young parents, educators and mental health professionals. Doctors,...

In the back-to-school issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, you can get an unintentionally amusing look at what happens when a progressive educator meets a truly captive audience. “Today is my first day teaching at MCI-Norfolk, a medium-security men’s penitentiary located 50 minutes outside Boston, where Boston University sponsors classes for inmates earning college degrees,” Tracy Slater writes in the September 1st issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. “My course will be an interdisciplinary seminar: ‘Gender, Identity, and Violence.’” “I'll be teaching a group of men whose individual crimes I neither know nor wish to learn, but I've...

From kindergarten through college, returning students may not be coming back to more difficult reading, writing and mathematical tasks, but they will be able to ascend to the next level of sensitivity. But to what avail? Gender-Bending Etiquette For example, students may graduate high school not ready to read at college level but they will know what to say to someone who just had a sex-change operation. “There’s news today that students at Batavia High School in New York will be greeted by administrators, counselors, and psychologists when they return on September 6th for forums and question-and-answer sessions about ‘gender...

(AgapePress) - A pro-family leader says the recent death of prominent psychologist and sexologist Dr. John Money, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University highlights the faulty foundations of the so-called "gender identity" movement. After Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Money -- who died earlier this month, one day before his 85th birthday -- was perhaps the best known and most influential sexologist ever. He is said to have laid the foundation for the transgender movement by starting the gender identity program at Johns Hopkins. Bob Knight But critics like Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute claim both Kinsey and Money relied...

A third gender choice available to young participants of a poll on the Barbie doll website was changed after initially offering children the options of "I am a Girl," "I am a Boy," and "I don't know" – eliciting charges that Mattel, the company that owns Barbie, is intentionally promoting gender confusing among kids. Barbie poll's original options. Apparently due to the criticism, the third gender option has now been changed to "I don't want to say." Concerned Women for America, or CWA, believes by including the "I don't know" choice the company was promoting the homosexual agenda. "It's...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, August 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Pennsylvania court has opened the door for men who believe they are women to come to work in a dress and to use the women’s restroom and shower facilities. The decision by the Commonwealth Court, which upheld a lower court ruling mandating that “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” be added to the Allentown (Pennsylvania) human relations ordinance, is being decried as an “outrage” by a traditional values group.According to the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), this is not something that the majority of citizens in Allentown want and is...

You see them at night in big cities: men dressed up as women, complete with makeup, jewelry, and high heels. Despite their best efforts, it’s not a pretty sight. Nor is the sight of men who take a more drastic step: undergoing so-called sex-reassignment surgery. When these surgeries were first performed at Johns Hopkins University in the early seventies, one psychiatrist—Paul McHugh—started asking questions about the wisdom of this. After all, the outcomes were not women, but grotesque caricatures of them. When McHugh became psychiatrist-in-chief in 1975, he decided to test the claim that men who underwent sex-change surgery were...

In a new twist on the age-old question of nature vs. nurture, Johns Hopkins scientists following 14 boys who were surgically altered as infants and raised as girls found that the majority grew up identifying strongly as males. Some of the patients spontaneously took on boys' names and began wearing male clothing before anyone told them the circumstances of their births - while others decided to live as boys once they found out. Warning against sweeping conclusions about the foundations of gender identity, the researchers noted that the study was limited to boys who were "assigned" to the female gender...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gov. Ed Rendell signed an executive order Monday barring state agencies from discriminating against employees based on their gender identity, a move aimed at protecting the rights of transgendered people and others who identify with a different sex.The executive order adds "gender identity or expression" to the list of attributes that cannot be the subject of discrimination against state employees, a list that already includes race, religion, age, sexual orientation and other criteria.The order applies to about 87,000 state employees who work for state agencies, boards and commissions, Rendell spokesman Tom Hickey said. It will generally affect...

<p>A divided state Senate voted along party lines Thursday for a bill banning discrimination against people whose "gender identity" is different from their biological sex at birth.</p>
<p>Assembly Bill 196, if signed by the governor, would provide sweeping new rights to transsexuals. It was approved 23-11 with six senators either not voting or not present.</p>